Thousands of California Immigrant Drivers Face Delays After DMV License Revocations

Thousands of immigrant truckers and bus drivers could wait months to find out whether they’ll recover commercial driver’s licenses that the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked on March 6 under federal pressure because they contained a clerical error.

A California state judge said Thursday she will oversee the DMV until it complies with her earlier order to reissue corrected licenses to about 13,000 impacted drivers, which the agency maintains it cannot do yet due to a directive from the Trump administration.

Defying that federal mandate could cost California significant highway funding and its authority to license all commercial drivers.

Alameda County Superior Judge Karin Schwartz recognized those limitations but considered them a “temporary obstacle.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation already withheld about $158 million in highway funds from California, arguing that the DMV should have canceled the contested licenses earlier, which expired on a different date than the holder’s work authorization.

California challenged the funding cut and the hold on its processing of non-domiciled licenses in a case pending in federal court.

Schwartz told the DMV to report back to her on any progress in that federal case, and scheduled the next hearing for Oct. 20.

“Let’s hope that things move forward and that this temporary pause concludes so that DMV may get in compliance,” she said.

Many of those impacted by the mass license revocation in California are Sikh asylum seekers originally from Punjab, India, who can’t afford the delays, said Munmeeth Kaur Soni, legal director with the Sikh Coalition, a co-counsel for drivers.

“There has been a huge economic devastation that they’re experiencing right now,” Soni said. “They are trying to not be defeated by this, but it is hard. It’s hard right now in our economy.”

Some drivers are trying to pivot to rideshare or other jobs, she said, but others who have lost their livelihoods are struggling to pay for mortgages and loans they took out to purchase trucks.

The cancellations are also causing some employers, including local governments, school districts and transportation and logistics companies, to lose part of their workforce.

Until recently, states issued non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to asylum seekers, refugees and other noncitizens with valid federal work authorization but who lacked a green card.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered dozens of states to pause their processing of these licenses, including Colorado, New York and Texas, according to the Asian Law Caucus, one of the organizations representing drivers.

Adding to the uncertainty is a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule that went into effect last month, which aims to gradually exclude about 200,000 immigrants from jobs behind the wheel as their non-domiciled licenses expire.

The Trump administration argues the policy closes a public safety gap because it is difficult to verify their foreign driving records.

In California, most of the estimated 62,000 non-domiciled license holders face losing jobs, even though the FMCSA itself acknowledged insufficient evidence linking a driver’s immigration status to safety on the road. Drivers and unions sued, seeking to block that rule.

The DMV initially planned to cancel nearly 21,000 non-domiciled licenses it found with expiration dates that differed from the holder’s work permit.

But the agency found 1,100 drivers had been erroneously targeted for revocations, while more than 6,000 others voluntarily relinquished the document or changed their immigration status to green card holders or U.S. citizens.